Toonami and Production IG announces Uzumaki by Junji Ito at CrunchyrollExpo 2019, To World Premiere in 2020.

Two members from our crew, Logan (@Schmullus1) and Bill (@OnionCuttyFlam), were out at Crunchyroll Expo today and covered the Junji Ito Panel. Announced today at the Panel by Maki Terashima-Furuta, President of Production IG-USA, acclaimed horror manga artist Junji Ito will be partnering up with Production IG and Toonami to create a four-episode anime adaptation of his hit work, Uzumaki. The four episode mini-series will see its world premiere on Toonami in 2020.

Uzumaki, which is Japanese for “Spiral”; will be based on a three volume supernatural horror manga of the same name created by Junji Ito in 1998. The manga is licensed for publication in North America by publisher Viz Media. For those wondering, despite sharing the same name, Uzumaki doesn’t have anything to do with Naruto Uzumaki or the Naruto franchise.

Junji Ito made his professional manga debut in 1987 and since then has gone on to be recognized as one of the greatest contemporary artists working in the horror genre. His titles include Tomie and Uzumaki, which have been adapted into live-action films; Gyo, which was adapted into an animated film; and Fragments of Horror, all of which are available from VIZ Media.

Uzumaki is the third original production announced for Toonami in the last few years, FLCL Progressive and Alternative being the first and Blade Runner: Black Lotus the 2nd. Uzumaki will be the third or possibly 4th (depending on when Blade Runner: Black Lotus premieres) world premiere by Toonami since its 2012 revival, after Space Dandy and the two FLCL seasons.

Synopsis for Uzumaki:

“Kirei lives in a town that lately has odd occurrences, and each one somehow is connected to a spiral. Soon the spiral occurrences spread to infect even the bodies of people, which suddenly turns the everyday events in her life into chaos and horror.”

Following the announcement, Jason DeMarco released the following statement in a set of tweets:

“That’s right! Premiering in 2020, the next#toonami original series will be UZUMAKI- a 4 episode adaptation of Junji Ito’s horror classic, dir. by Hiroshi Nagahama (Mushishi) and scored by Colin Stetson (Hereditary). I’m beyond thrilled to be working with one of my favorite mangaka of all time, Ito-sensei. His support has been instrumental in getting this made and it’s been a joy to work with him! And yes, before you ask: the whole series will be in black and white. 😎 Also: Nagahama is a MASSIVE Ito fanboy, so rest assured he is doing his absolute most to do the story justice. We are very lucky to have such a talented director who is willing to let this be exactly what it needs to. Ito is very happy with the scripts and the trailer so far, and thrilled with the positive reactions to our announcement!”

The buzz from the announcement made “Uzumaki” a trending topic on Twitter in the United States today.

You can check out an interview and behind the scenes with the team of Uzumaki here:

And also check out the Trailer for Uzumaki:

Spiral into the dark! Toonami is proud to announce the newest anime series created in partnership with Production IG USA. Uzumaki, a four episode mini-series based on the supernatural horror manga by legendary author Junji Ito, will premiere on Toonami in 2020!#Uzumaki#Toonamipic.twitter.com/jo53p0zm8H

Logan (@Schmullus1) and Bill (@OnionCuttyFlam) contributed to this article and Bill made the initial announcement on our Social Media accounts and Logan photographed the pictures used in that announcement. Logan and Bill also recorded the panel (Audio Only) which will be released at a later time.

Also special thanks to Maki-Terashima-Furuta for letting us know about the announcement. 😉